Libra (September 23rd through October 22nd): Your ruling planet is Venus. You desire a consistent life with few complications, and your childhood dream is to meet the boy or girl of your dreams, although failure to meet this goal can lead to a fairly independent life which can make you successful in business. Today you are likely to play an escape game by Otousan, maker of Bird Escape, with puzzles themed around determining the weight of objects by various means.

As is the custom with Otousan's games, Libra places you in a four-walled room with various features. Click around the screen with the mouse to navigate and interact, sometimes picking up objects that are appropriately useful. Select or deselect an item in your inventory by clicking it; when selected, use it by clicking on the environment, or inspect it with the "About Item" button. When Otousan picks a theme, they play with it in seemingly every way they can; Libra is no exception. It has all the hallmarks of an Otougame: a group of well-designed themed puzzles with some simple minor ones to tie them together, a simplistic atmosphere that makes sure you know what you're messing with without being distracting, a changing cursor, and unfortunately no save feature. Being a Gemini myself, I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer to find an escape game themed around my sign. For now...

You'll start facing an L-shaped cabinet. The two doors in the bottom middle are sliding doors; you can't open the one on the right because it bangs into the door next to it, but get the metal piece from the left one.

Open the middle right cabinet door and watch the blue ball bounce out. Don't worry about the yellow ball, you can't reach it yet.

Turn right and pick up the blue ball. It needs an odd combination which you don't have yet. Note the spring scale in front of you, then turn right again and note the door and odd recess in the wall.

Turn right again and see the three gray cylinders, each with a recess in it. Zoom in on the one matching the metal piece (the one on the left) and snap it in place to see a balance scale. Peek at the paper tucked away at the scale's base to understand how the math here works.

Remove all three weights from the balance. Turn around and face the spring scale again; put the 1-gram or 5-gram weight on it and note the reading: two marks equal one gram. Now weigh the white ball alone to see what it weighs (it's random every play).

Put the weights back on the scale the way they were: 1-gram weight on the left, 5-gram and white ball on the right, like in the screenshot in the review. They should balance, and a panel should open up. Enter the weight of the ? based on the information you know and simple algebra. (Shortcut: add 4 to the white ball's weight.)

Once you've got it, you'll get a red key. Use it on the matching keyhole on the L-shaped cabinet for a pair of binoculars, then look out the window and use the binoculars to get a close-up of the billboard in the distance. You'll see an array of symbols. (That's random each time, too.)

Enter the symbols from the billboard on the blue ball to get a screwdriver. Go take all the weights from the balance scale, then unscrew the hook from the white ball. You'll also want to unscrew the panel from the top of the left end of the cabinet, which gets you a metal ring and an oddly shaped recess.

Snap the ring and the ball into the cylinder on the right for another balance scale. Read the paper to see what's up with this one. What you want to do is balance the scale using the 1- and 5-gram weights. This time trial and error is your friend; start with the 5-gram weight and transfer it from hook to hook until you tip the scales, then use the 1-gram weight.

Once you've balanced the scales, it's time to do the math. Multiply each weight's value by the number of hooks past the fulcrum it's on to get its "true" weight. For example, if the 5-gram is on the fourth hook and the 1-gram the third, the value is (5*4 + 1*3) = 23.

Solve for the unknown weight and input it, then take both weights back and pick up the green key. Using that one in the appropriate cabinet door will net you a 25-gram weight and the ability to open the right sliding door, which hides a moon-shaped metal piece.

Obviously, the moon-shaped metal piece goes in the last cylinder. Time for more balancing. Use the 25-gram weight to obtain a range, then narrow the range with the 5-gram weight, then solve it using the 1-gram weight. Tip: 1 = 1, 2 = 1*2, 3 = 5-(1*2), 4 = 5-1.

Then do the math. Remember the *2's for the weights further from the fulcrum, and remember to subtract anything on the same side of the scale as the unknown weight while adding anything on the other side. Once you've got it, you'll get a blue piece.

Take the blue piece and take back the weights, then snap the blue piece into the recess on the cabinets and prepare to be taken for a ride. I seriously never expected THAT to happen in an escape game. Note how the yellow ball falls; it falls a lot slower than the blue one did earlier, didn't it?

Go and pick up the yellow ball. It, too, is locked with a code. Might as well go look out the window again since the view is different; there's a billboard here, too. Look at it with the binoculars to get the code for the yellow ball, and inside you'll find a ?-shaped object.

The ?-shaped object fits into the recess by the door, but to do anything in that direction you'll need to know what it weighs, so keep it for now. Let's go fuss with the spring scale again.

Remember how slowly the yellow ball fell compared to the blue ball? I don't think we're under the same level of gravitational force anymore, so any reading from the scale is going to be different. Let's recalibrate the scale. Put any known weight on the scale and you'll see that it weighs a lot lighter now.

Combining the 1- and 5-gram weights on the scale, or the 5- and 25-gram weights, will prove that the scale is now one mark for every three grams, which is one-sixth of what it was before. Put the ?-shaped object on the scale alone and note its weight according to this calibration (different every game).

Know how much the ?-shaped object weighs? Go put it in the recess by the door, then enter its weight in the area provided. If you've got it right, the door will open and you'll be free… at least until the lack of a breathable atmosphere here gets to you.

Posted by:
SonicLover |
September 20, 2011 2:28 PM

26 Comments

You'll start facing an L-shaped cabinet. The two doors in the bottom middle are sliding doors; you can't open the one on the right because it bangs into the door next to it, but get the metal piece from the left one.

Open the middle right cabinet door and watch the blue ball bounce out. Don't worry about the yellow ball, you can't reach it yet.

Turn right and pick up the blue ball. It needs an odd combination which you don't have yet. Note the spring scale in front of you, then turn right again and note the door and odd recess in the wall.

Turn right again and see the three gray cylinders, each with a recess in it. Zoom in on the one matching the metal piece (the one on the left) and snap it in place to see a balance scale. Peek at the paper tucked away at the scale's base to understand how the math here works.

Remove all three weights from the balance. Turn around and face the spring scale again; put the 1-gram or 5-gram weight on it and note the reading: two marks equal one gram. Now weigh the white ball alone to see what it weighs (it's random every play).

Put the weights back on the scale the way they were: 1-gram weight on the left, 5-gram and white ball on the right, like in the screenshot in the review. They should balance, and a panel should open up. Enter the weight of the ? based on the information you know and simple algebra. (Shortcut: add 4 to the white ball's weight.)

Once you've got it, you'll get a red key. Use it on the matching keyhole on the L-shaped cabinet for a pair of binoculars, then look out the window and use the binoculars to get a close-up of the billboard in the distance. You'll see an array of symbols. (That's random each time, too.)

Enter the symbols from the billboard on the blue ball to get a screwdriver. Go take all the weights from the balance scale, then unscrew the hook from the white ball. You'll also want to unscrew the panel from the top of the left end of the cabinet, which gets you a metal ring and an oddly shaped recess.

Snap the ring and the ball into the cylinder on the right for another balance scale. Read the paper to see what's up with this one. What you want to do is balance the scale using the 1- and 5-gram weights. This time trial and error is your friend; start with the 5-gram weight and transfer it from hook to hook until you tip the scales, then use the 1-gram weight.

Once you've balanced the scales, it's time to do the math. Multiply each weight's value by the number of hooks past the fulcrum it's on to get its "true" weight. For example, if the 5-gram is on the fourth hook and the 1-gram the third, the value is (5*4 + 1*3) = 23.

Solve for the unknown weight and input it, then take both weights back and pick up the green key. Using that one in the appropriate cabinet door will net you a 25-gram weight and the ability to open the right sliding door, which hides a moon-shaped metal piece.

Obviously, the moon-shaped metal piece goes in the last cylinder. Time for more balancing. Use the 25-gram weight to obtain a range, then narrow the range with the 5-gram weight, then solve it using the 1-gram weight. Tip: 1 = 1, 2 = 1*2, 3 = 5-(1*2), 4 = 5-1.

Then do the math. Remember the *2's for the weights further from the fulcrum, and remember to subtract anything on the same side of the scale as the unknown weight while adding anything on the other side. Once you've got it, you'll get a blue piece.

Take the blue piece and take back the weights, then snap the blue piece into the recess on the cabinets and prepare to be taken for a ride. I seriously never expected THAT to happen in an escape game. Note how the yellow ball falls; it falls a lot slower than the blue one did earlier, didn't it?

Go and pick up the yellow ball. It, too, is locked with a code. Might as well go look out the window again since the view is different; there's a billboard here, too. Look at it with the binoculars to get the code for the yellow ball, and inside you'll find a ?-shaped object.

The ?-shaped object fits into the recess by the door, but to do anything in that direction you'll need to know what it weighs, so keep it for now. Let's go fuss with the spring scale again.

Remember how slowly the yellow ball fell compared to the blue ball? I don't think we're under the same level of gravitational force anymore, so any reading from the scale is going to be different. Let's recalibrate the scale. Put any known weight on the scale and you'll see that it weighs a lot lighter now.

Combining the 1- and 5-gram weights on the scale, or the 5- and 25-gram weights, will prove that the scale is now one mark for every three grams, which is one-sixth of what it was before. Put the ?-shaped object on the scale alone and note its weight according to this calibration (different every game).

Know how much the ?-shaped object weighs? Go put it in the recess by the door, then enter its weight in the area provided. If you've got it right, the door will open and you'll be free… at least until the lack of a breathable atmosphere here gets to you.

Never quite figured out the "right" way to calculate the mass of the final object. Visual approximation along with trial and error wasn't a particularly satisfying way to end.

Yes, based on the simple scale, you can almost tell it's around twice as heavy as the 25 (or the 25 plus the 5), but punching in every guess between 45 and 65 doesn't sound like the right approach. There's got to be a real solution I missed, right?

Put the 25 and 5 weight on there to see what 30 registers (since gravity is adjusted), which ends up being the second large hash mark. If that's the case, each medium mark is 15 and each small hash mark is worth 3, so once you put the question mark on, it's 1 medium mark and 2 small marks down from where 30 was, so (3*2) + 15 + 30 = 51.

Figure out how much 1 mark on the scale equals. You do this by applying a combination of weights until you are pointing directly at one of the marks and then divide by the number that you are pointing at. For example 5+1 = 2nd mark therefore each mark is (5+1)/2 = 3 grams. You then weigh the question mark, add up the marks and multiply by 3

Hey, I think this is the first escape game I solved without even glancing at the walkthrough. And why? Well, partly because I got the hang of the main gimmick pretty quickly, but also, no pixel hunts! The number of times I've been stuck on an escape game because I know what to do, but can't find the thing I need to do it.

Gee, apparently my trouble with the final puzzle being "unsatisfying" was due to a hidden hotspot.

I had no idea you could zoom in on the spring scale a second time. The first level of zoom was close enough to see the red measurement line, but the identically sized hashmarks are apparently utterly hidden until you click on it a second time.

I'm using Google Chrome and the game is slightly larger than the square it's nested in, which meant I could only navigate around the room by going left and I barely had a sliver of the X to close the close-up of items.

The last time I had that problem, the zoom in the browser had been changed from 100%, but that wasn't the case this time. Indeed, changing the zoom didn't affect the problem one way or another for this game.

This was nice, but a little too easy. It only just got my interest when

the ship(!) launched and landed at the moon,

but by then the game was practically over. If a game can be said to be part of a meal of meat and potatoes, this one was a pea. A very nice pea indeed, shiny and green and with a surprising yet satisfying aftertaste that tickles the tongue after a bit of chewing, which is not all that common for a pea, I'll give it that, but it's still just a pea. Well, maybe a bit of potato too. Not much sauce though, if any, and definitely no meat. Perhaps the meat's visible through the binoculars, but it's out of reach. (In hindsight, this is perhaps not too surprising, considering where we ended up.)

This game needs a bit of quality control on the weight values. Some of the (I assume) randomly generated weight puzzles are impossible to balance. In my case the weight on the 3rd weight puzzle was 16 on the inner side of the scale. The closest you could get to balancing this was
putting the 5g weight on the outer left side of the scale and the 25g weight on the left. Adding the 1g weight to the outside right of the scale caused it to tip the other way. (Strictly speaking this means the unknown weight was more than 15g and less than 17g). Otherwise seems nicely done id a bit too easy.

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